Plot Summary: In the future Japan has become a fractured country, and small towns now exist. The rulers of this world have the cursed power of Telekinesis. When an incident occurs, 5 children come to realize the world is not as it seems, and learn the bloody history behind this world. These 5 children unite and help the world as it falls into a downward spiral of chaos.
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Plot:
In the future Japan has become a fractured country, and small towns now exist. The rulers of this world have the cursed power of Telekinesis. When an incident occurs, 5 children come to realize the world is not as it seems, and learn the bloody history behind this world. These 5 children unite and help the world as it falls into a downward spiral of chaos.

I think I was right to anticipate this. It's a bit early to say, of course, but the feeling I get from the first episode is that the characterisation for this show is going to be consistently and especially good. I am also absolutely loving the art and the animation and I'm hoping pretty hard right now that the excellent quality in those areas will not be exclusive to the first episode, as it happens with too many series of late. Not once did I see any awkward movements (character or camera) or hiccups in the art. The colour palette seems to be rather dusky and warm, making it somewhat solemn, but not overbearingly dark (and nice on the eyes too!). It does occasionally make use of 3D objects, but I like how scant they are and how they aren't used as a cheap copout to address complicated scenes (such as the scene in which spoiler[Saki's room pretty much attacks her]), instead opting primarily for 2D objects, all animated exceedingly well. This is some movie-quality stuff; the budget for this episode alone must have been massive.

I also like how it didn't try to throw all of its core themes, plot devices, and detailed explanations for them at us all at once and instead left more questions than answers. I am intrigued as to what happens next, what happened one thousand years ago, and why telekinetic powers are a commonality in the future.

...But then, this is the first episode. I'll reserve true judgement on its quality once we get a tad further.

Hmm... this is an unusual, but so far interesting.
spoiler[Saki awakens into adulthood and is transferred to a new school where she meets up with her friends.
Seems like all of the kids are telekinetic.
Saki was the only one who actually questioned what happened to the other kids.
Reiko wasn't doing well at all. At this rate ...
Saki wasn't taking her friends' horror stories for granted though.
It's probably 'cause she was close to one herself.
The adults are hiding some ugly truth...]
Looks like it's the survival of the fittest only.

You do have a point there. So far the only things making this a mystery are Saki and her secretive parents who obviously know the truth.
I will give this a few more episodes to see how it will develop.

The first episode looked promising. It wasn't too heavy on exposition and didn't seem too obtuse either. I do hope that there will be more worldbuilding though. The first sequence felt a little detached since no relation with the rest of the episode was established in time and space. The character designs were also a little too simple for my tastes. Otherwise it looked quite nice.

I don't believe those mysteries will hold for more than a couple of episodes. It doesn't seem that the story is built around that. They're just there to pull us in.

I get a slight Another feel from watching the first episode, the use of mystery that is just out of the characters give it a horror aspect that. That and we saw what looked like some spoiler[nasty deaths, something about children dyeing (going missing), and some rumours/ stories that will likely be a foundation for things]. It is for that reason that I think they might play the mystery a bit harder then you might expect, although this might be lighter, so maybe not.

Could probably say more about the powers, but I want to watch a bit more first.

The recent review for Fractale seemed to almost-randomly mention that it shared common themes from Huxley's Brave New World. I personally disagreed with that review, but I definitely see at least a few similarities between that classic dystopian novel and the first episode of From the New World. There is a, from the reader/viewer's perspective, spoiler[a crazy populace who practice some form of eugenics headed by some central governing body.] Seeing how the parents know the significance of the 'Phase Cat' makes me very suspicious of practically all of the adults in the town or perhaps just the ones who are on that 'council'. I find it hard to believe that they would not spoiler[rebel if their sons and daughters would keep getting killed] so I am going to speculate that there is some kind of brainwashing done to keep the populace accepting of such a 'tradition'. I'll be curious if the spoiler[rat-people] mentioned in the Spotlight for this are akin to the 'savages' from Brave New World as well.

It definitely looks promising. It's got me hooked for the minute at least. But any dystopian story is going to, inevitably bring comparisons with other great works. I'm surprised there wasn't more discussions about it in Humanity has Declined personally.

Huh? This is based off a novel that won an illustrious sci-fi award (like the Hugo/Nebula in US). The writing should be quite well done. I wouldn't expect much of any complaining about plot holes. This isn't some 15 year old's fanfiction fantasy after all.

I watched this yesterday and enjoyed it despite not too much happening in the beginning. I liked the concept of a supernatural dimensional war theme as well as the visual arts that I found very well done, on par with KyotoAnimation's works.

The music is also eerie and I enjoyed listening to aspect of the soundtrack. I've read the interview posted on the ANN spotlight for this series several times and looking forward to what the author is going to present to us in the series. It might probably have minor changes with the novels but I'm fine with that.

Might re-watch this episode but so far, I'd say this series definitely has caught my attention for this Fall.

I had some mixed feelings throughout the episode, but it kept me pretty interested. Then the ending narration hit and gave me a strongly negative impression. I might as well just look up spoilers if the anime isn't going to put in any more effort than some random anonymous schmuck online. It's only the first episode so I won't write it off just yet, but based on previous experiences, this one probably isn't going to work out for me.

Huh? This is based off a novel that won an illustrious sci-fi award (like the Hugo/Nebula in US). The writing should be quite well done. I wouldn't expect much of any complaining about plot holes. This isn't some 15 year old's fanfiction fantasy after all.

the novel is very confusing. lol it is like horizon in the middle of nowhere. I don't know how they can make an anime off this novel. it has a lot of time skip. I hope they can pull it off.

I am really intrigued by this one,it sort of did make me feel like I am just a kid discovering a new world.Also at the family dinner scene ,director used some really interesting angles which reminded a bit of "The Birds".

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